British banks among biggest lenders to coal industry.

Guardian: “Three UK banks are among the world’s biggest lenders to the coal-mining industry, despite trumpeting their environmental credentials, a new report has found.” “RBS, which is majority-owned by UK taxpayers, was by far the biggest of the UK banks involved, providing finance of nearly €5bn (£4bn) to the industry in the last eight years. It ranked as the world’s eighth biggest lender to coal-mining operations, according to a study from a group of non-governmental organisations.
Barclays was the next biggest UK bank on the list, with more than Euros3.5bn in lending, and HSBC – which in 2004 boasted of being the first major company in the UK to go “carbon-neutral” – provided about €2.5bn in finance over the same period.
The report, entitled Banking on Coal: Undermining Our Climate, from organisations including Germany’s Urgewald and the Polish Green Network, found that at least €118bn had been lent globally to coal mining between 2005 and 2013. Despite coal’s position as the most carbon-intensive fossil fuel, lending on coal mining has increased three-fold since 2005, the year the Kyoto protocol came into force.
….Barclays was one of the banks that helped draw up the Equator Principles, which require companies to take environmental risks into account in their lending practices.
HSBC has long campaigned on its green credentials, teaming up with WWF, the Climate Group and others in a $100m “climate partnership” project.
None of the three companies responded to a request for a comment.”